EU has launched a New Programme

18 October 2017

On 11 October the EU Ambassador Piotr Świtalski, made a working visit to town Armavir, Armavir marz. In the morning the Ambassador met with the Governor of Armavir marz, Ashot Ghahramanyan, and the Mayor of Armavir, Ruben Khlghatyan, to discuss bilateral cooperation.

Later the Ambassador was hosted by Armavir State Art College, accompanied by Governor Ghahramanyan. He then attended the official opening of a social enterprise printing house at the college; the latter was established through the EU-funded and Save the Children-implemented “Social Innovations for Vocational Education and Employability of Young People with Disabilities” (SIVEE) project. SIVEE has achieved tangible results in creating equal employment opportunities for youth with disabilities through promoting social innovation in Armenia’s vocational and education and training (VET) sector. As part of this project 40 students with disabilitieshave received vocational training at Armavir State Art College. Five alumni have already been employed at this printing house. Overall 5 technical VETs out of 7 were selected to set up innovative social enterprises (SE). Each SE will hire at least 5 employees with disabilities employing in total 25 young people.

The college also hosted a forum on VET reform, during which the Ambassador announced a budget support programme, “Better Qualifications for Better Jobs”, which will have a budget of €15.2 millionfrom 2017-2019 and to be financed under European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI). The main implementers of the programme will be the Armenian Ministry of Education and Science, the Armenian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture, private sector organisations, and other civil society partners. The programme seeks to improve efficiency in Armenia’s labour market and the employability of its workforce, with a particular emphasis on agricultural employment.

The Ambassador spoke more on the EU’s continuous contribution to VET in Armenia: ‘Today we will talk about education – I want to confirm the EU’s commitment to supporting the development of education in Armenia at all levels. Today I am announcing a large programme aimed at offering modern and better-quality education. The EU has conducted many activities in Armenia related to education: we have completed a big programme that supported VET in many Armenian marzes, I myself visited many of the colleges involved and was impressed with the quality of project implementation. However, the sad side of the story is that not all alumni can then find jobs matching their qualifications. Therefore, this new programme has been formulated differently – we want to talk about matching demand and supply, qualifications, and jobs so that people graduating in VET can find jobs which will satisfy them and will fulfill their aspirations. On the other hand, employers must also find people with the right skills and education’.
Both the VET Reform Forum and the opening of the Social Enterprise took place as part of the “Learning is Cool” campaign initiated by the European Union Delegation to Armenia. Running from 9-13 October, the campaign has promoted the positive outcomes of EU-Armenia cooperation on education and employability through a series of events. It has highlighted the value of lifelong learning to the citizens of Armenia.
The Ambassador’s working visit concluded with a meeting at the Armavir Euroclub.

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